TEACHING TIPS & TEA - EPISODE #3:

This simple, but effective vocal warm up offers the opportunity for students in all year levels to have the opportunity, in every class, to gently warm up their voice or, for those who haven't yet, to discover their singing voice.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

Hi music colleagues. Great to see you! Ruth here from Take Note Music. Today's teaching tip is how we support students to find their singing voice. Many years ago I was writing reports and I began to reflect on, am I giving each student an opportunity a regular opportunity to discover their singing voice. If they haven't yet had that joy and the answer was no, so I decided that to implement a vocal warm-up in each class for every year level was the answer. To take students from their monotone speaking voice to this gentle high singing voice. Their chest voice to their head voice. So the learning intentions embedded in that are that each class the students get the opportunity. Secondly, that it establishes a routine for the beginning of each class, especially helpful for those students with anxiety. Thirdly, gentle warm up for the student voice and also the teachers and last but not least, the visual and kinesthetic confirmation of pitch going from low to high. So, how do we do this, we begin with a stretch activating the body, warming it up roll the shoulders stretch out the chest by activating the energy we can then establish a great posture ready for singing. So we're waking up the resonators in the back of the head. Students echo. Then moving to a vowel and done very gently and sensibly. It's so relaxing and ready, readies us for singing. As the students gradually develop their confidence, they begin to link their visual confirmation of their voice with the actual singing and the pitch. Take Note Music has a number of products to help you with these, a couple of puppets. So we'll start with the ghost puppet. And then students can lead and echo each other. Moving on to the singing eyes and these are great for call and response activities, so the teacher leads ‘Hill and Gully Ryder, Hill and Gully. Hill and Gully Ryder, Hill and Gully'. Then the teacher asks the students to take over the response part, and it is simply Hill and Gully each time. So it's easy, meanwhile they're listening to the rest of the song and learning it. Last, but not least, we have the e-book series of Mrs Clef. This brings the stave to life with an engaging story set in the farmyard in a chicken coop. In book two, the little mice lead the singing and vocal exploration through embedded sounds and the students echo whispering voices. High voices, squeaky voices and then their singing voice. In this way for the young children it's just an engaging story, but for older students they start to link the learning and understand the five lines and the four spaces. Within the treble stave, then they can move on to the back line master worksheets. So I hope this has been a useful tip today. Jump on the website below for more information on products. Happy teaching you!

RELATED PRODUCTS:

Ghost Puppet

A$29.95

Exclusive to Take Note Music - Wool Felt Fair Trade Puppets

​Designed to develop the singing voice in young children. Ideal for vocal exploration.

Teacher models 'ooooo' sounds of a ghost by creating glissandi using high and low sounds. The children echo. Children then take it in turn to create their own sounds using the 'ooo' sound with the class echoing. Pass the puppet around the circle. Children eagerly await their turn and enjoy creating sounds and having their friends echo their sound.

​Useful for teachers of pre-school and students in their first year at school.

See our blog for a video on how to use this fabulous puppet to teach an understanding of Pitch - Teaching Tips & Tea Episode #3

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Singing Eye Puppets

A$11.95

Exclusive to Take Note Music - Wool Felt Fair Trade Puppets
Teaching aid for introducing call and response songs to children; these eyes make it easy for children to understand what part of the song is the teacher's and what part of the song is the children's to sing

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eBook 1 - Mrs Clef's Chicken Coop

A$20.00

Click for more details of the series

By bringing music to life through association, in this case a farmyard chicken coop with beautiful and engaging illustrations to match, children discover a fundamental of music theory; the four spaces in the treble stave.

The chickens, Francine, Abigail, Connie and Edna lay their eggs in “special spaces” throughout the story as a means to help children to make the connection between the music stave’s spaces and the chicken’s eggs. Each chicken lays their eggs in a particular space and therefore helps children to understand that each space is relative to a specific chicken. This relativity is then later reinforced and simplified to give the children a solid understanding that each space signifies either an F, an A, a C or an E in terms of musical notes and lettering.

In the book, children engage with the story by listening first, then echoing the buzzing likes bees, humming like chickens and the 'bok' sound of each pitch as the chickens lay their eggs - from low to high in the chicken coop 'stave'.

As an all-embracing exercise towards the end of the book, children then listen to and echo Mrs Clef’s singing of I See the Moon as she sings it to her chickens at night. Children can then sing the song and show the melody in the air by looking at the melodic contour represented by the moons.

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Further to the theoretical learning and practical side of the music lesson, children are also presented with musical signs, notations and tools such as: the stave, treble clef, tuning fork and metronome.

**An email will be sent for the download with full instructions and a 7 day timeframe.

Support is provided via email to ensure you are ready to enjoy Mrs Clef with your children!

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eBook 2 - Mrs Clef's Vegetable Garden

A$20.00

Click for more details of the series

Based on the same premise as the first of the series, this book focuses on a farmyard vegetable patch to help teach children about the lines within the music stave. The mice, Edward, George, Basil, Dudley and Frederick provide the means of association needed for effective retention by “living in the timber rails between the spaces of the chicken coop”, thereby identifying the lines as E, G, B, D and F.

The same highly-effective methods of teaching are used in this book as the first whereby children are engaged in their lesson through echoing back certain notes, again “buzzing” like bees and this time using their different types of voices eg. whispering, squeaky, high, low and finally their singing voices. Students echo the mice as they introduce themselves in each of the 5 timber rails (lines) of the stave.

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At the end of the story, Mrs Clef reappears and sings “Starlight” to the mice at night. Children sing the song and can show the melody in the air by looking at the melodic contour represented by stars.

In this book children are presented with an entirely new set of musical notes and objects, such as the conductor's baton and they enjoy a performance of the mice as they sing as a chamber choir.

**An email will be sent for the download with full instructions and a 7 day timeframe.

Support is provided via email to ensure you are ready to enjoy Mrs Clef with your children!

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